Christmas Tree!

Art has been in Boston all week and got back late last night.  On the docket for tonight is BUY A CHRISTMAS TREE!  We attempted to last Saturday before going to dinner at Leona's w/ Poppi & the D. family.  However, the Christmas tree lot we went to priced their 3-4' trees at $30...a bit out of our price range.  Then on Sunday, the boys and I went to Walmart w/ Poppi and I saw their small trees w/ tree stand were $20.  Art would much prefer to get a tree at a tree lot, so we decided to try a place on Howard where we got the tree 2 years ago.  YES!  They had great trees.  We got our tree, about 5' I guess for $25.  Score.  Now back home quickly to decorate it.  We let Poppi watch us via video chat.  He got to witness about 3 ornaments shattering, some arguing, lots of laughing, etc.

 

Shayna attempting to spread the ornaments out over the whole tree while Zach puts them all in the same place

Goofy Shayna

Art, Wyatt, Zach getting it decorated

Finished product in the light.

They boys put ornaments in one or two concentrated places.  Art and I thought we'd adjust the ornament placement after the boys went to bed, but we decided to leave it as is.  They were both so proud of their work.  We were short one string of lights, so we'll have to add another one.  The tree smells so very lovely!  Even the hallway, where it sat for 20 minutes or so smells so great.  I do love a real tree...despite the huge mess we'll encounter after returning from GA.

One hard thing, for me, was letting the boys put on MY "special" ornaments.  I was torn between letting them have a good time/good memories of putting up the Christmas tree and being selfish and wanting to put up my own ornaments.  Being a good mom finally won out over selfishness.

After the tree was decorated, we put the boys in their jammies and they got to sing some Sinterklaas songs.  Tomorrow is the Sinterklaas celebration at a church in Skokie.